Essex Restaurant and Brunch Celebration

Unlike most people that take Sunday as a day of rest (or to cure their hangover from the night before) I awoke early this Sunday morning to venture off to brunch and celebrate Sunday with great food and drinks. The Lower East Side, probably one of my favorite New York City neighborhoods, was the place to go. One place to check out if you're in the area is Essex Street Market on Essex Street. It's a huge venue filled with different merchants selling the best and most gourmet sorts of produce, from meats to pastas and sauces. If you're a great cook, it's a great place to pick up some ingredients for a home cooked meal. If you're not (ahem, myself) a cook by any means, it's still a great place to go and check out some great foods to make some simple recipes with.

Located within the Essex Street Market is brunch haven: Essex restaurant. The interior of the place is the perfect ambiance for a fun day of drinking and dining, with it's modern decor and DJ spinning pumping jams.
Most notably, is the brunch menu. Brunch is offered on Saturdays and Sundays every weekend during the afternoon, and it is only $16 (yes, you heard me correctly) for brunch and three glasses of either mimosas, bloody mary's, or screwdrivers. The best part is that the waitresses honestly don't count your glasses, so I ended up having about five glasses of mimosas! The food and the presentation are amazing as well.
I chose a veggie favorite, which consisted of spinach over eggs benedict. It came with homefries, mixed greens, and the hollandaise sauce was superb.

My friend ordered the crispy potato pancakes with sauteed apples, honey cream sauce, and spinach shitake black bean hash. It looked absolutely amazing!


Last, but certainly not least, my other friend ordered the "Aristocrat" (see below) which was a potato pancake topped with salmon, poached eggs, and salmon caviar.


All this food talk is making my mouth water. Next time you're being lazy on a weekend morning, suggest to your friends a day out to brunch at Essex and scout out the Essex Marketplace (note: while the restaurant is open the marketplace is closed on Sundays) on 120 Essex St.

Until next time, happy eating!

Bianca